Hannah's Art Place · Oil Painting 1

Day One · Oil Painting

Black and white only. One egg. A methodical first evening with oil paint.

Tonight we learn to see in value — and we let the paint teach us how it wants to be handled.

1
First · The Table

The Materials

Everything for tonight, and nothing more. No brushes yet — we begin with the knife.

Why the grey glass? Glass wipes clean easily, even when the paint has dried on it. And it's grey — because with oil's ability to layer and stay flexible, it's best to think mid-value outward.

Paint — black & white only Gamsol Silicoil jar Shop towels New Wave grey glass palette Palette knife
2
Second · The Knife

The 9-Value Scale

With black, white, and the knife, mix nine even steps. This scale is the reference for everything we paint after it.

Light
Light
Middle
Light
Dark
Light
Light
Middle
Middle
Middle
Dark
Middle
Light
Dark
Middle
Dark
Dark
Dark
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Three families — Lights, Middles, Darks — each split into three. Wipe the knife between steps.

3
Third · Now the Brushes

Brushes, Thinner, Towels

Today's brushes: Robert Simmons and Princeton, size 2 and 4 filberts. Gamsol alters the consistency of the paint; the Silicoil jar cleans the brush between mixes.

Brush shapes are mainly filbert, flat, and round — there are many more for different effects, but for now we keep it as basic as we can.

4
Fourth · First Project — The Egg

Start with the Drawing

A few measuring marks first: the top, the bottom — the widest points of the entire design.

Start with straight lines you can angle, leaving some space between them, so the drawing stays flexible. As it develops, move closer to details — including edges, both soft and hard.

The class egg — our shared reference photograph
measuring marks — top, bottom, widest points a plumb line through the middle straight lines — angles & symmetry curve the lines — and find the shadow edge
5
Fifth · Middle Outward, Big to Small

Separate the Egg into Four Parts

How do we start with paint? Middle outward, big to small. Before a single stroke — one tap: what would you paint first?

It's natural for your first instinct to be the highlight. Not yet — the big shapes come first.

The class egg painting
6
Sixth · Keying

Key the Painting

With the four parts laid in, we organize every value from two anchors:

Where is the lightest light?Find it. Everything light answers to it.
Where is the darkest dark?Find it. Everything dark answers to it.
Slow is fine. Clean the knife, cap the Gamsol. You painted today.
HANNAH'S ART PLACE · OIL PAINTING 1
The 9-Value Scale
Mix each value with the palette knife and lay a swatch in its empty box. The printed scale below is your target — squint, and the steps should climb evenly.
Sheet 1 / 2
Light
Light
Middle
Light
Dark
Light
Light
Middle
Middle
Middle
Dark
Middle
Light
Dark
Middle
Dark
Dark
Dark
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Black is far stronger than white — a middle grey takes less black than you think.

HANNAH'S ART PLACE · OIL PAINTING 1
The Egg — Class Reference
We all paint from this same photograph. Four parts: Form Light · 2  ·  Background · 3  ·  Form Shadow · 6  ·  Cast Shadow · 7.
Sheet 2 / 2
The class egg — our shared reference photograph